Ora et Labora

Psalm 89: ¹¹ "The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth;
    you founded the world and all that is in it."

 (When writing about praying and working my mother is in my thoughts in every word I write. Magnhild to the left, is the woman who could not believe that Christians used too much detergent.)

Pray and work.
That's an ancient Lutheran device. The New Born, the Haugians of Norway, from the nineteenth century also lived and preached the same way.
Even the Benedictine monks in the monastery where my friend brother Ole lives do the same. They divide the day between physical work, Bible studies and prayers in the church. How I love and respect these old guys. Spare-time as we name it doesn't exist. They will, however, always do their utmost entertaining guests. They see in each guest a representative of Christ and they try to meet them with a hospitality, like they would receive a visit from Christ.
Isn't that wonderful? I've experienced it isn't empty words.
They have become good role models to me.

This part of the monastery garden belong to br. Frans. He grows flowers attracting butterflies. Br. Ole is my guide.

Christians going green.
I am raised to exploit, respect and fertilize the earth in a time when our neighbor used DDT as pesticide in his orchard. My Dad never allowed use of any poison in the garden. My Mom became an expert in green methods to keep her berries, vegetables and fruit free from worm, lice and worse.

Let the sun bleach and use natural fertilizer. My Mom's practice from the eigties.
 
In the seventies we were "attacked" by acid rain from England and Germany. In a decade the rich salmon and trout rivers and sweet waters were emptied. No fish could survive in the sour environment. Eager men carried sacks of lime up in the road-less mountains to try heal the damage. Now they're using helicopters to get the job done. Slowly people in my little hometown understood they could not unpunished misuse the environment without it having consequences. I remember my Mom's best friend, Magnhild, saying to my mother back in the seventies, "But Inga, no Christians use too much detergent." She lived as she preached and took it for grated that all around her did so too.

 My Mom making waffles for Gunnar with spelt meal, sour cram, eggs a pich of salt and a two spoons of brown sugar. and bicarbonate of soda. My mother taught me to use soda bicarbonate for my teeth and against stomach acid.People laughed at her last year when she asked for s. bicarbonate. Today it's the in thing to do.

Now pure need has forced my little family to think what we buy and how we use everything from food supply, garden, means of transportation, clothing e.t.c.
Allergies for food, pollen, chemicals have risen ecological awareness. We try avoiding industrial food, white sugar and soft drinks, gluten products, yeast (at least minimize it), there are, oh so many traps to fall into.

 

My childhood friend Oddvar, son of Magnhild,still working at the church's local good will shop every Saturday. Recycling is a part of his everyday life.

For decades we have sent clothes to poor countries, mostly in Eastern Europe. We also buy secondhand stuff of all kinds. It's a way of living and it's fun, like treasure hunting.I even have my own Norwegian online shop, "Mrs. Ljung's Apple Crate". This way I have learned a lot about Norwegian quality craft and industry. Now all outsourced out to Asia.

 The healing flower Valerian root is part of my logo. Serina helped me create it.

If I can contribute to less waste, I think I've done a good job.
What I cannot sell I give to good will shops. What I have done for thirty years now has become an in thing.
A wonderful thing about the Internet. I can work when I have some good minutes.

This brings me to the prayer part, the most important of course.
For a long time I felt that Facebook was a superficial time consumer, filled with advertising and poor jokes. I was wrestled into opening an account by one of my cousins. "If you want to keep track of what's going on in your family, you'd better get on FB. True we have family from Peru to Montana, from Iceland to my oil-working cousin and his family soon in Ghana, Azerbaijan and now in Scotland, Gunnar's nephew in the Philippines, friends moving to Spain and even to Algeria, where a husband recently was taken hostage by terrorists. Because I was informed the minute it happened, I was able to do some serious praying.
On the Scarf Sister site I simply had no rest when to two Scarf Sister nephews were born. I was called to prayer all around the clock.

Serina 14 years old in a bunad her Grandmom sewed. She's marching for the YWCA. "Still young and alive" the posters says. Prayerchild of an army. She shall not be moved!

God is almighty and the great healer who sees and knows everything, but he has challenged us to stay praying, always stay praying. " I will let me be found by you", He says through Isaiah.
The contact with the Lord is a two way route.
What a wonderful gift. He wants us, less than dust, to stay in contact. And I need not go to church to pray, I need not even go to the chamber which Gunnar calls "The Chapel". I can follow Paul's commandment to the Thessalonian.
1 Thess. 5:^17" Pray without ceasing."

 Serina's Grandmom and Gunnar's mama. She died just four weeks after Serina was born. This is the last photo made of her. Her prayers for Serina never expire on date. How glad I was, when I realized that fact.

Walking in Faith

The two different socks are a blessing and a strong reminder.
I'm putting them on like God's full armor.

Lending ear to the devil is a dangerous thing I often find myself doing.
How he tormented me, "You have nothing to tell about walking, spreading the word of God. You're a good-for-nothing person not attending church or serving the way the other sisters do."
Well, he's kind of right, you know. I don't preach, and the last ten years or so I actually haven't done much to help or serve actively in the church either.
When I go to church, I do so to get food for my hungry soul, rest for my tormented mind and get filled with joy through the Scripture, the hymns, the communion, even the beauty of the building.

(I need to add I did my share as Serina grew up, following to Sunday School, scout camps, even baking or making buns of puffed rice and chocolate for family gatherings at the YWCA/YMCA, attending gospel concerts where Serina and her lot were performing, Gunnar driving to and from each Friday evening when other adult pairs were busy having fun themselves, gathering money to support the trips to Paris, Estonia or wherever the choirs and scouts were headed.)

I think I'm making excuses for not being a church-working-going type. I am who I am, trying not to pretend being better or more engaged.
I've had to find my own way of being a Christian, serving God as honest as I can.
My Mom always instructed me to work for the face of God and not be an Eye servant.
I've tried to do that, with many flaws and failures.

A year ago, my Mom and me working in her garden. I miss her beyond words. I hear her voice and instructions wherever I go. She still is a blessing to me.

If something, this has become my way of being a Christian.
I cannot be a straightforward A4 person. I wasn't cut out to be this way. I am not even honoring Christ the way I'd like to.
Nevertheless I am a person friends call in times of trouble and ask for prayers. They know I'm weak, they sometimes despise me, but they know that's why I've become a praying person. I cannot do or be anything without God. Because I'm weak, I am strong.

2 Chor. 3:² "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men."